Posts Tagged ‘New York City’

Circumstances forced me to go outside in the cold Monday afternoon against my will. During my time out and about I walked about 15 blocks up and down Broadway and now present, in picture form, some of the sights from around Inwood in northern Manhattan. This is a very small stretch of Broadway, and this is the same Broadway that’s in songs, television shows and people’s imaginations. If you wanted, you could walk from the top of Manhattan to the bottom via Broadway. No one who works for TVFury has that much ambition so this is just a slice of maybe the most famous street anywhere.

I cross the George Washington Bridge for work twice a day every weekday. In 2002 I went over it for the first time, during my first move to New York. Overwhelmed by all the lanes and the city to my right, I missed my exit and drove around Washington Heights or Queens, I’m still not sure, until I finally emerged in midtown. On that drive I stared at the bridge all the way across it and took in every building as we made our way through Times Square in my 1998 Cavalier. Now I barely notice the bridge or the city as I come over in the morning in a carpool or return in the evening on the bus, my head buried in a book or my attention on conversations with co-workers. One of the great bridges in the country? Great, what’s the traffic like? The Hudson River down below? All right. The great skyline? Yeah, seen it. That occasional indifference is the result of doing the same thing for seven years and living in the city for nine.

It’s a Fury family New York City tradition that we hit the movie theater on the holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day — we usually spend them in a dark room watching the latest blockbuster or Oscar wannabee. Depending on the time of day — a matinee or the evening — the place could be empty or packed. On the Fourth of July we went to The Heat and I was surprised to see a long line when I strolled up to the theaters at 84th Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side. It was 7 p.m., I thought people might not venture inside when the fireworks would be coming up outside.

And as always, I strongly suggest that people visit the neighborhood today too — it’s not what it was back in these videos and posts, but it remains as unique as ever. And as Law & Order: Criminal Intent explained, there’s even a type of code if you live here (which was don’t talk to the police; so if you do come here and have need to talk to the police, don’t follow the code).

My old-man basketball league ended Wednesday night, though a final night of drinking and reminiscing will soon follow. I went out in a blaze of glory, or as much as that’s possible for middle-aged men playing in an elementary school in upper Manhattan. The threes were falling, the fadeaway was Nowitzki-esque. It was a nice end to a difficult season, one that was first shortened because of various bureaucratic debacles involving the New York City school system. A few weeks into it my knees ached and after a doctor told me I was too fat and needed to learn stretching exercises, they started to improve a bit before falling apart again over the past month. Unnamed sources insisted I was considering hanging it up. Not true. Oh, sure, I’ll keep whining about aches and pains but retire? Nah.

That said, the reality is my best days are 20 years behind me and, with my 38th birthday a few weeks away, I’ll have to adjust my game, especially if the knees go. It happens to all of us–Kareem, Jordan, Magic, Nash, Fury. But what will it look like as the years pile up, the hair goes gray before it falls out and the instincts become as slow as the feet?

One of my first experiences with modern art came when I worked in Worthington and spent late nights with my co-worker and friend John Brewer. As we watched Heat and Casino over and over and ended the evening with drinks and conversation, John worked on or displayed his art. John is a man of many talents — great writer, respectable juggler, outstanding chef and amateur artist. One of his projects involved cans of Coke and toilet paper rolls.

It was art, he announced, and I bought the argument, as did his future wife. Our friend Cheri, though, didn’t accept his declaration and the two engaged in some spirited debates about the Coke project.

On Tuesday I made my first trip to the Museum of Modern Art and I wish Cheri and John had been with as numerous exhibits would have sparked arguments between the two of them about whether or not what we were looking at was actually art.

Had a little incident Wednesday. For about 30 minutes, I became obsessed with hunting down and capturing a cheap airline ticket price I had seen two days earlier but had disappeared within 24 hours. Next thing I knew I had signed myself up for about six email alerts from various websites and I was tweeting at the account for American Airlines. I checked various travel sites — you know them, Orbitz, Priceline, Hotwire, and company — and at one point after entering various dates on Kayak I watched in horror as about 24 separate windows popped up on my computer screen, all of them offering basically the same prices, taunting me with their consistency.

Once it had all died down I felt a bit sheepish, checked to see if any hairs were out of place and if anyone would use the words wild, eyed and frenzy when describing me. Then I continued on my day. Still, I like to think many people would have acted like this if they had the chance to save a thousand bucks.

So. How ’bout that election, huh? I bet some of you even stayed up past your bedtime tracking results, flipping channels and analyzing analyses.

Welcome to my world. Not the political part, but the late-night living. It’s rare that I get to bed before 2 a.m. anymore even though I have to be up by 6:45 a.m. to get my oldest daughter off to school. While I could blame the sports-writing profession for this habit, the truth is that I’ve always been a bit of a night owl. My dad used to call me a Midnight Marauder, and that wasn’t a Tribe Called Quest reference. (more…)

One thing I love about New York is that each neighborhood is like a separate city. Go 20 blocks and you see different geography, architecture, restaurants, nationalities and vibes. In northern Manhattan we live in a quieter neighborhood with a large natural park a few blocks away and smaller apartment buildings. Twenty minutes south on the subway and you can enter a whole new world.

So when a hurricane hits New York City — and how unreal is that I can type that line two straight years — there are 100 different stories in 100 different parts of the city.

* Could be some interesting weather in a few days on the East Coast as Hurricane Sandy could combine with a winter storm for something that would be similar to The Perfect Storm that hit in 1991, which you remember from the movie. No matter what happens, we know one thing: Unless it wipes out the entire Eastern Seaboard, people will accuse East Coasters of overreacting and don’t you people know how to deal with real weather, like battle-hardened Minnesotans and hurricane-weary Floridians? That’ll be fun.

* In brain-related news, a scientific study conducted in the UK revealed that exercising late in life can prevent brain shrinkage. Also, a demented cop in New York City allegedly planned to torture, kill and eat – brains and all, perhaps? – at least 100 women from all over the world. Disturbing doesn’t being to describe it.

* This week’s podcast of the week: The Joe Rogan Podcast. Yes, he used to host Fear Factor. And, yes, he sounds stoned when he laughs – that’s because he probably is. Nonetheless, he casts some decent pod, sometimes funny and sometimes enlightening. A recent episode falls into the latter category thanks to an appearance by Victor Conte, the former director of performance-enhancing drugs pioneer BALCO. Given his checkered past, it’s hard to know how much stock to put in what Conte says – and he divulges a lot. But at the very least, he offers an inside look at how cheating works and how prevalent it remains today.